VILLANOVA, Pa.—Only a few Villanova Stadium records have stood for as long as the old 5000 meter record of 13:46.2 set by two-time U.S. Olympian John Bacheler on May 16, 1970. That was until Friday night when the Wildcats trio of junior Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.), fifth year Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) and senior Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) all beat the old standard with a 1-2-3 podium sweep in the 5K during the 2023 BIG EAST Outdoor Track & Field Championships presented by JEEP. Murphy is the conference champion and the new facility record holder with a winning time of 13:43.32.
 
There were six scored events during Friday's meet program and Villanova tallied team points in the 5000 meters, the 3000 meter steeplechase, the long jump and the javelin. In addition to the sweep in the 5K fifth year distance runner Evan Addison (Collegeville, Pa.) finished eighth in the steeplechase, freshman Daelyn Nwaobasi (Nashville, Tenn.) came in seventh in the long jump and the junior duo of Nick Coffey (Cranston, R.I.) and Andrew Grinnell (New Milford, Conn.) each placed in the javelin. Coffey tallied a fourth place finish and Grinnell came in fifth.
 
The final event of the night provided a highlight to remember, with Murphy tearing down the final straightaway and closing with a bell lap of 56.08 for his first career outdoor BIG EAST title and second overall individual conference crown. Murphy's body of work during the 2022-23 competition seasons now includes winning the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional title in cross country, capturing BIG EAST gold indoors in the 3000 meters and outdoors in the 5000 meters, as well as anchoring a Championship of America 4xMile relay team at the Penn Relays only two weeks ago.
 
Each of the three Wildcats who made up the 5K sweep recorded lifetime bests at the finish line. Phillips was the runner-up to Murphy in 13:44.93 and took nearly a second off the mark of 13:45.85 he had produced just two weeks earlier when he was the first Villanova athlete in 59 years to win a distance event championship at the Penn Relays. Strintzos was the bronze medalist in Friday's 5K with a PR of 13:45.70. His previous career best of 13:47.32 had stood since a race at the Raleigh Relays in March 2021.
 
Addison finished eighth in the 3000 meter steeplechase with a time of 9:00.71. Earlier this season he surged onto the Wildcats all-time performance list in the steeplechase, coming in at seventh at the Duke Invitational with a time of 8:50.17 which will qualify him for the NCAA East Preliminary meet which comes up later this month.
 
Coffey recorded a throw of 63.52 meters in the javelin and Grinnell produced a mark of 60.88 meters. They each scored in the event for the second year in a row, with Coffey tallying his third consecutive top-eight result. The pair rank second and fifth, respectively, in school history with the current javelin implement which has been used since 1999.
 
Nwaobasi recorded a distance of 6.55 meters earlier in the afternoon during the long jump competition to tally a seventh place finish, while freshman Sanjay Persaud (Bloomingburg, N.Y.) recorded a personal best and was just outside of a scoring position with a mark of 5.93 meters.
 
The rest of Friday's event schedule featured preliminary heats in several individual events. Freshman sprinter Amiri Prescod (Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago) was an automatic qualifier for the final of both the 100 meters and the 200 meters. He had the fifth-fastest time of 21.39 in the preliminaries of the 200 meters on Friday and cut nearly a half second off his previous PR which had been set at the Miami Alumni Invitational last month. Prescod added a time of 10.65 in the 100 meters.
 
Junior Nicholas Mollica (Jackson, N.J.) and senior Mac Costonis (Lower Gwynedd, Pa.) each moved on to the final of the 400 meter hurdles. Mollica came in second in his heat with a season-best time of 53.32 and Costonis finished fourth in the same race to equal his top mark of the year in 55.38. This is the first time in his career that Costonis is moving on to the final of an individual BIG EAST event.
 
Two other Villanova qualifiers for their respective finals are junior Jakob Kunzer (George Town, Grand Cayman) in the 400 meters and senior Sean Dolan (Ewing, N.J.) in the 800 meters. Kunzer advanced on time to the 400 meter final with his fastest career time in an open race. He crossed the finish line in 48.50, beating his old PR from high school and registering a mark that is less than one-tenth of a second higher than a split he ran in the 4x400 meter relay at Princeton last season. Dolan won his heat of the 800 meters in 1:51.75 to earn an automatic berth in the final.
 
Saturday's action picks up with men's pole vault starting at 10 a.m. inside the stadium, while the throwing events will be underway with shot put events on Pike Field at 11:30 a.m. The first track final of the day is the 4x100 meter relay at 1:06 p.m.